Q2-Spring-2016_Alert-Diver

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THE DIVES

Our first dives were at Lhaviyani Atoll. We descended

Fushifaru Kandu

at slack tide, which gave us the

opportunity to effortlessly navigate the shallow reef,

but the water clarity was worse than it would have

been in an incoming tide. No matter, the attraction

here was schools of reef tropicals so massive they

obscured the water.

I was initially surprised to find such a large

congregation of redtail butterflyfish (

Chaetodon

collare

), as I’d forgotten how common they are in

the Maldives. We found them pretty consistently

throughout the cruising range, mostly as singles or in

pairs, but on this reef they were present by the dozen.

We also saw bluestripe snappers in large schools at

several bommies throughout the trip; here they were

comingled with schoolmaster snappers.

Turtle Cave

was a site that came by its name

honestly. The crew briefed us to expect green sea

turtles throughout this dive, but they really undersold

it. The site seemed fairly underwhelming at first —

just a sloping reef populated by the usual Indo-Pacific

suspects. But then we drifted into a portion of the wall

with small pockets and overhangs that must be highly

attractive for resting turtles, because they were literally

everywhere. I don’t know if I saw 24 turtles or the same

dozen twice, but it was incredible how abundant and

mellow they were. If I never took another turtle shot

the whole trip (though I did, of course), I would have

been happily satiated after this dive. Once we drifted

out of that portion of the reef, things got pretty tame

again. But in that spot, Turtle Cave was world-class by

any standard.

Our next stop was Shaviyani Atoll. At

Danbu Thila

the most compelling feature was a large congregation

of extraordinarily friendly batfish. We dropped into

the water upcurrent of the reef structure, and the first

thing we saw were batfish swimming right up to us in

crystalline visibility. I think most of us maxed out our

bottom time at 80 feet working with the batfish only to

have them follow us into the shallows at 30 feet. Their

behavior was the same throughout the dive, but the

attractive reef backgrounds in the shallows made for

even better images. If I never took another batfish shot

the whole trip (though, again, I did), I would have been

happily satiated after this dive, too.

Up until we dived

Eriyadhoo Beyru

we hadn’t seen

much soft coral on the northern reefs — I was actually

surprised by how low-profile the decoration on the

walls was. The soft coral was dense, and it made for

wonderful backgrounds for fish photos, but I had the

thought that if I were to photograph a diver against

these soft corals and wanted to make the corals appear

impressively large then I’d need to book Ant-Man as

the model. That didn’t diminish my appreciation of the

thoroughly beautiful and productive dive, but it was

one of those random thoughts that passed though my

mind during the safety stop. Later I searched online

for “soft coral in the Maldives” and found plenty of

contemporary photos and videos of reefs draped in

soft coral, so I won’t project my experience on this

reef to the broader Maldives underwater experience.

Nor is the soft coral the only attraction here: The hard

corals, particularly the staghorn variety, were vast and

pristine. The contrast of the orange anthias amid the

golden branching corals was particularly inspiring.

At Noonu Atoll’s

Raafushi Cave

, my most significant

photo opportunity was with a giant moray at a cleaning

station. A school of orange anthias swam close to the eel

— perilously close, perhaps, but I suppose such a large

eel might be pretty ponderous in pursuit of a nimble

anthia. Anyway, I saw no evidence of any fish being

alarmed to swim near the cavernous eel maw.

The next day at Raa Atoll I saw

Nemo City

the briefing board. Having dived many sites called

“Anemone City” or something similar, I am rather

desensitized to such names. In fact, I’d forgotten the

name of the reef until I began seeing lots of anemone

clusters, many of which were curled up with their

crimson or lavender mantles exposed and the resident

endemic Maldives clownfish within. It was really quite

beautiful, and once again I felt the dive was more

significant than I had expected.

Baa Atoll is most famous for the large aggregations

of manta rays and whale sharks that frequent

Hanifaru

Bay

between July and November each year. Being there

on Valentine’s Day I realized I wasn’t likely to get much

manta love, but I found other things of interest. The

dive that most resonated with me was

Horubadhoo

Thila

— the fish were especially friendly there.

There are 32 marine protected areas in the Maldives.

The expanses of reef they cover are not necessarily

large, but the dive sites within them are especially

vibrant. These are total no-take zones, and because the

dive operators are there so often, they are self-policed.

Here I saw surgeonfish calmly being cleaned and

emperor angelfish boldly swimming toward my dome

port. Had I not already been told about the protected

status of this reef, I would have known based on the

behavior of the marine life.

With five days of diving under our weight belts, we

headed southward to some of the most iconic dives in